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Twelve Afghan police killed in clashes with militiamen
A dozen policemen and two militants were killed in clashes in western Afghanistan, a district governor said Sunday. The policemen, responsible for the security of a dam being reconstructed by Indian engineers, were on patrol when they came under attack from dozens of rebels in Herat Province Saturday, he said."We lost 11 policemen," Chishti Sharif district Governor Sayed Gul Chishti told AFP. Two rebels were also killed in the attack, he added. About 20 more policemen went to the scene on Sunday for a follow-up operation and were surrounded by the attackers, Chishti said. The siege lasted the whole day and another policeman was killed before it was broken and the other officers were able to escape, he said. Chishti blamed the attack on rebels loyal to Ghulam Mustafa, a former anti-Soviet guerrilla commander "who has now joined the Taliban." Mustafa, speaking to AFP over the telephone, admitted his men killed the policemen but denied his links to Taliban and said his men had been attacked. The Taliban had pledge that it would observe a cease-fire on Sunday, the International Day of Peace, and that it would not interview with a three-day polio-vaccination campaign in the country. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force reciprocated the pledge, and apart from the violence in Heart, most of Afghanistan was relatively quiet. Posted by: Fred 2008-09-22 |
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